Liszt the European and His Transylvanian Rhapsody: An Idyll of Intercultural Harmony

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Ferenc Liszt, the Hungarian who spoke hardly any Hungarian, was a committed pan-European. For example, he composed songs to texts from the literatures and in the languages of Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Russia – and even America. Of course, he supported Hungarian political goals, but especially charitable and cultural goals. His most famous works include his series of Hungarian Rhapsodies (published as Rhapsodies hongroises, S. 244). Still obscure – partly because of their extreme technical difficulty – is his earlier set, published as Magyar dalok és magyar rapszodiak, S. 242. One of these latter, no. 20, deserves special attention. Its first publication in 1936 was entitled “Rumanian Rhapsody.” Upon inspection, it contains Hungarian themes (of urban café origin) and a Transylvanian Saxon march Liszt calls a “Hermannstädter.” And it contains the most remarkable theme of all, an authentic Romanian folk shepherd tune he titles “Walachische Melodie,” set in harmonic and pianistic colors that would not be used again until Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, many decades later. Liszt develops and combines these themes in a manner idealizing the potential harmony between three cultures, in what is neither a Hungarian nor a Romanian rhapsody, but truly a Transylvanian one. He epitomizes the concept of a harmonious cultural crossroads and presents a musical vision of the human ideals at the center of the European Union project, one to set next to the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with its alle Menschen werden Brüder. Musical excerpts will illustrate the talk.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Peter Czipott (B.A. 1975 and Ph.D. 1983, both physics, UC San Diego) has four decades’ experience in R&D and management of projects and intellectual property in arctic oceanography and sensor development for detecting threats and contraband, medical diagnostics, and nondestructive evaluation, with 12 patents and over 40 technical publications. He is a literary translator with six book-length publications, another in press, and more seeking publishers, plus several shorter translations and scholarly articles. He has received the 2010 Balassi Memorial Medallion, the 2020 Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit, and the 2023 Balassi Memorial Sword for his services to Hungarian literature.